With injury and death rates on the roads increasing due to distracted driving, and the onset of crashes caused by self-driving vehicles, the number of injuries from motor vehicle crashes is skyrocketing. According to the USDOT and NHTSA, traffic fatalities increased 5.6% in one year. According to the USDOT, between 2014 and 2015 as distracted driving became a more serious problem in America, there was an annual increase in traffic deaths of 7.2% - the largest annual percentage increase in 50 years. In recent years, pedestrian deaths due to vehicles have increased 9.0% in one year to the highest rate since 1990, SUV occupant fatalities have increased 10.1%, van occupant fatalities have increased 9.3%, and bicycle fatalities have increased 12.2% in one year. According to USDOT and NHTSA, nationwide, 37,461 deaths, and approximately 2,400,000 injuries were sustained as a result of motor vehicle collisions. According to NHTSA, traffic crashes are the leading cause of death from age 3 to age 34 nearly every year. So, comes as little surprise then that motor vehicle cases are the #1 area of practice for most personal injury lawyers.
There can be great complexity to these cases, including differences with head on collisions, side impact collisions and rear end collisions. Cases can be resolved through settlement, mediation, non-binding arbitration, binding arbitration or litigation depending upon the rules of your state, whether the case is a third-party case, or a first-party case, and other laws governing mandatory arbitration in cases worth a certain amount. Statutory attorney fees can be available in some states. In others, you may face issues pertaining to Personal Injury Protection or MedPay coverage. Settlements may warrant structured settlements, while others may require Medicare Set Aside accounts, restricted accounts for minors and incapacitated people, or special needs trusts. Defense medical examinations both on PIP/Medpay and litigation are a constant problem and the defense of malingering by insurance doctors is commonplace. This level of complexity doesn’t even consider the myriad of medical conditions that can arise from the significant forces generated by two or more vehicles traveling at a high rate of speed with considerable mass. Nor does it consider how to deal with insurers who will hire an accident reconstructionist or biomechanist to say that the force on your client’s car was less than 2.5Gs and therefore your client couldn’t possibly be injured. It had to be pre-existing degenerative arthritis, or abuse 40 years before the crash. These cases carry every insurance company tactic and defense excuse possible to escape responsibility. With increasing regularity, we are we are seeing certain insurers offer little or nothing even on serious injury claims, and forcing lawyers to go to trial to recover anything for their client.
Trial Guides’ first product was a book on the Colossus software system used by insurers to systematically underpay bodily injury claims. Since that release in 2004, most of the products released by Trial Guides provide methods to settle or litigate motor vehicle cases, as well as bad faith claims against auto insurers. This has created an unprecedented library of books and video resources aimed at helping personal injury attorneys to improve outcomes for injured people.
Top 10 Resources for Lawyers Handling Motor Vehicle Cases
The list below focuses on specific skills, knowledge and methods that will help you maximize outcomes in your motor vehicle cases. To see all products sold by Trial Guides that relate to handling motor vehicle cases, please click the button at the bottom of the page.
